traffic engineering

The video demonstrates another method of routing L2VPN traffic using Cisco MPLS Traffic Engineering (TE) tunnel. Instead of relying on targeted LDP, we will be leveraging MPLS TE for label exchange and traffic path control. We will also look at a way to provide redundancy using a backup pseudowire. We will perform Wireshark packet capture and review control and data packets. 

The video demonstrates an ability to reroute traffic around a failed router (node) using Fast Reroute feature of Cisco MPLS Traffic Engineering. The concept is very similar to what we saw with Link Protection in the previous video except for the extra label communication from Merge Point (MP) router to Point-of-Local-Repair (PLR) router due to that fact that they are no longer directly connected, which will be elaborated in this video. We will go through the configuration and also perform failover test so you can see this in action.

When you have a critical link that needs to be protected from extended packet loss, it is possible to pre-establish a MPLS TE tunnel (aka NHOP) routed around the link so traffic can be immediately rerouted after the link goes down, by simply start using the MPLS TE label instead of regular label, without having to wait for routing to converge. This method is known as Fast Reroute with Link Protection and we go through the setup and configuration in this video. We will also perform failover test so you can see this in action.

The video goes over a more advance topic of tunnel LSP attributes in Cisco MPLS Traffic Engineering (TE). We have learnt that we can use path option to dictate which links your MPLS TE tunnel should traverse. MPLS TE actually provides you with additional set of tools to get even more granular with the link selection in a form of LSP attributes. Attributes that will be reviewed in this lab includes, bandwidth, priority, attribute flags and affinity. We will also introduce an auto-bandwidth feature as a way to avoid wasting link bandwidth from over-provisioning.

The video goes over a more advance topic of tunnel LSP attributes in Cisco MPLS Traffic Engineering (TE). We have learnt that we can use path option to dictate which links your MPLS TE tunnel should traverse. MPLS TE actually provides you with additional set of tools to get even more granular with the link selection in a form of LSP attributes. Attributes that will be reviewed in this lab includes, bandwidth, priority, attribute flags and affinity. We will also introduce an auto-bandwidth feature as a way to avoid wasting link bandwidth from over-provisioning.

The video goes over a more advance topic of tunnel LSP attributes in Cisco MPLS Traffic Engineering (TE). We have learnt that we can use path option to dictate which links your MPLS TE tunnel should traverse. MPLS TE actually provides you with additional set of tools to get even more granular with the link selection in a form of LSP attributes. Attributes that will be reviewed in this lab includes, bandwidth, priority, attribute flags and affinity. We will also introduce an auto-bandwidth feature as a way to avoid wasting link bandwidth from over-provisioning.

The video takes you through the concept of Cisco MPLS Traffic Engineering (TE) metric. We will first get to know the two types of metric; IGP and TE. We will then focus on the two common forwarding options; Autoroute Announce and Forwarding Adjacency, as you will see that depending on which forwarding option you are using, the path metric gets calculated and manipulated differently which directly effect traffic routing decision. We will try to exercise our knowledge by attempting to load balancing traffic between IP path and TE tunnel.